APS Boundary tool--anyone get it to work yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the school board or staff so keen to move unit 1502 from W-L to Yorktown? It's moving in 3 out of 4 of the offered scenarios. It's currently walkable to W-L, and it just had its elementary school moved from Glebe to McKinley during the recent redistricting fiasco. AGAIN? Can't they just leave us alone?

I didn't object to the Glebe/McKinley move and I don't want to be one of those entitled parents who object to everything APS does. But I like W-L and I heard Yorktown has more disposable income and therefore drugs.

Does most of McKinley end up at Yorktown? If so, maybe they are trying to keep the school together?

IIRC, only 2 of the current McK planning units currently go to W-L. Everyone else is currently zoned for Yorktown.

I don't know where you're getting that from, but I don't think it's correct. It also directly contradicts a previous presentation APS put out saying that 6 planning units zoned for McKinley and Swanson are zoned for W-L and 8 are zoned for Yorktown. The planning unit directly south of us, whose kids we have played at Lacey Woods park with since our kid was in preschool, is zoned for W-L.

The hill I was talking about IS the Harrison Street hill, starting from below Washington Boulevard going up to Lee Highway. It's particularly steep from around 16th street up to around the sledding hill around 18th or 19th. Then you get to the grocery at Lee Harrison and you're still only about halfway to Yorktown, and it's more hill!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in 1502 and while Washington Lee is certainly both walkable and bikeable to us, Yorktown really is not. Something is up with their distance calculators, because it is definitely another half mile at least to Yorktown. Moreover that HUGE hill between us and Yorktown really kills the bikeability.

Uphill! Both ways! J/k, but for our family it really would kill the ease of getting there. We can walk now, and if they add this impediment and at the same time tell us we're still walkable/bikeable when we're really not and they won't bus us either, this move doesn't work for us. I like W-L to start with, so to take that away and the walkability, too, aww, APS, why you gotta hurt me?

It's off. My house in Lyon Village on walkable map is 0.97 miles. Their app has us listed as 1.7 miles. They want to bus us to Yorktown--while neighbors next to us (directly across the street) and behind us will remain walking to W-L.

From the LV Citizens' Association website:

"The neighborhood sits between Lee Highway (North) Wilson Boulevard (South) Veitch Street (East) and Kirkwood Road (West) and is considered to be part of Clarendon...."

No LV planning units have been proposed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the school board or staff so keen to move unit 1502 from W-L to Yorktown? It's moving in 3 out of 4 of the offered scenarios. It's currently walkable to W-L, and it just had its elementary school moved from Glebe to McKinley during the recent redistricting fiasco. AGAIN? Can't they just leave us alone?

I didn't object to the Glebe/McKinley move and I don't want to be one of those entitled parents who object to everything APS does. But I like W-L and I heard Yorktown has more disposable income and therefore drugs.

Does most of McKinley end up at Yorktown? If so, maybe they are trying to keep the school together?

IIRC, only 2 of the current McK planning units currently go to W-L. Everyone else is currently zoned for Yorktown.

I don't know where you're getting that from, but I don't think it's correct. It also directly contradicts a previous presentation APS put out saying that 6 planning units zoned for McKinley and Swanson are zoned for W-L and 8 are zoned for Yorktown. The planning unit directly south of us, whose kids we have played at Lacey Woods park with since our kid was in preschool, is zoned for W-L.

The hill I was talking about IS the Harrison Street hill, starting from below Washington Boulevard going up to Lee Highway. It's particularly steep from around 16th street up to around the sledding hill around 18th or 19th. Then you get to the grocery at Lee Harrison and you're still only about halfway to Yorktown, and it's more hill!

As I read the boundary maps, the following planning units are assigned to McKinley: 1401, 1402, 1403, 1404, 1405, 1406, 1407, 1408, 1409, 1410, 1411, 1501, 1502, 1608

Currently, 1407, 1408, 1409, 1410, 1411, and 1502 are assigned to W-L; the rest to Yorktown.

However, of the planning units assigned to W-L, only 1502 is north of Washington Blvd. The others are south of Washington. So I guess the argument is that moving 1502 to Yorktown keeps it with its neighborhood? I dunno.

(I don't live in 1502 and am agnostic about where it goes to high school.)

[Anonymous]

09:31 has it right. McK is more Yorktown than W-L, but not by a ton. However, 1502 is an oddball that sits in a Yorktown neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep hoping pp. so long as your kids are unborn, you can afford that timetable. The rest of us need good schools now. So we have to move, win the lottery or go private.

Well, I don't really have to hope. It's playing out in front of us. Just look at these boundary suggestions. Demographics seem to be taking priority, as they should. But you are correct, I have the luxury of time. My point above has more to do with some people's weird investment in certain zipcodes staying down. Gentrification brings a lot of feelings out of people. Certainly the populations being displaced have a right to have feelings. People who clawed their way out can have a hard time looking back and seeing the improvements they didn't get to enjoy.

You don't actually have to move if you are rezoned to Wakefield. You could try it out and see how it is. If they redistrict in a way that changes the demographics the school changes. Look at W&L. Years ago, people would have freaked out if they were rezoned from Yorktown to W&L and now the Yorktown kids are choosing to go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep hoping pp. so long as your kids are unborn, you can afford that timetable. The rest of us need good schools now. So we have to move, win the lottery or go private.

Well, I don't really have to hope. It's playing out in front of us. Just look at these boundary suggestions. Demographics seem to be taking priority, as they should. But you are correct, I have the luxury of time. My point above has more to do with some people's weird investment in certain zipcodes staying down. Gentrification brings a lot of feelings out of people. Certainly the populations being displaced have a right to have feelings. People who clawed their way out can have a hard time looking back and seeing the improvements they didn't get to enjoy.

You don't actually have to move if you are rezoned to Wakefield. You could try it out and see how it is. If they redistrict in a way that changes the demographics the school changes. Look at W&L. Years ago, people would have freaked out if they were rezoned from Yorktown to W&L and now the Yorktown kids are choosing to go there.

I think we are in agreement. I am zoned Wakefield and will likely always be, even if a new school is built. My family has 15 years to see how this all plays out. I feel pretty confident will be very comfortable with Wakefield when the time comes.

[Anonymous]

ArlNow has an article up now. Arlington Forest parents have been emailing, seems like. https://www.arlnow.com/2016/11/02/superintendent-to-present-high-school-boundary-recommendations/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ArlNow has an article up now. Arlington Forest parents have been emailing, seems like. https://www.arlnow.com/2016/11/02/superintendent-to-present-high-school-boundary-recommendations/

And one of them went on the record in this story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ArlNow has an article up now. Arlington Forest parents have been emailing, seems like. https://www.arlnow.com/2016/11/02/superintendent-to-present-high-school-boundary-recommendations/

And one of them went on the record in this story.

I recognize him from the meeting (looked him up on fb).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep hoping pp. so long as your kids are unborn, you can afford that timetable. The rest of us need good schools now. So we have to move, win the lottery or go private.

Well, I don't really have to hope. It's playing out in front of us. Just look at these boundary suggestions. Demographics seem to be taking priority, as they should. But you are correct, I have the luxury of time. My point above has more to do with some people's weird investment in certain zipcodes staying down. Gentrification brings a lot of feelings out of people. Certainly the populations being displaced have a right to have feelings. People who clawed their way out can have a hard time looking back and seeing the improvements they didn't get to enjoy.

You don't actually have to move if you are rezoned to Wakefield. You could try it out and see how it is. If they redistrict in a way that changes the demographics the school changes. Look at W&L. Years ago, people would have freaked out if they were rezoned from Yorktown to W&L and now the Yorktown kids are choosing to go there.

It's not a good analogy, since APS treated W-L as its favorite child by giving W-L both AP and IB. So W-L gets transfers from Yorktown and Wakefield, but few students can transfer out.

Make Wakefield the only AP or IB school in the county, as discussed earlier in the thread, and the dynamics might change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep hoping pp. so long as your kids are unborn, you can afford that timetable. The rest of us need good schools now. So we have to move, win the lottery or go private.

Well, I don't really have to hope. It's playing out in front of us. Just look at these boundary suggestions. Demographics seem to be taking priority, as they should. But you are correct, I have the luxury of time. My point above has more to do with some people's weird investment in certain zipcodes staying down. Gentrification brings a lot of feelings out of people. Certainly the populations being displaced have a right to have feelings. People who clawed their way out can have a hard time looking back and seeing the improvements they didn't get to enjoy.

You don't actually have to move if you are rezoned to Wakefield. You could try it out and see how it is. If they redistrict in a way that changes the demographics the school changes. Look at W&L. Years ago, people would have freaked out if they were rezoned from Yorktown to W&L and now the Yorktown kids are choosing to go there.

It's not a good analogy, since APS treated W-L as its favorite child by giving W-L both AP and IB. So W-L gets transfers from Yorktown and Wakefield, but few students can transfer out.

Make Wakefield the only AP or IB school in the county, as discussed earlier in the thread, and the dynamics might change.

It is a very good analogy in that W-L used to be considered the ugly stepchild compared to Yorktown and now many (most?) consider them to be on fairly equal footing, and some (many?) even think W-L is a better choice.

[Anonymous]

^^Meant to add, I personally don't think IB is enough of a draw to get Yorktown families to Wakefield. My guess is that many of the Yorktown to W-L IB transfers would stay at Yorktown if IB were moved to Wakefield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep hoping pp. so long as your kids are unborn, you can afford that timetable. The rest of us need good schools now. So we have to move, win the lottery or go private.

Well, I don't really have to hope. It's playing out in front of us. Just look at these boundary suggestions. Demographics seem to be taking priority, as they should. But you are correct, I have the luxury of time. My point above has more to do with some people's weird investment in certain zipcodes staying down. Gentrification brings a lot of feelings out of people. Certainly the populations being displaced have a right to have feelings. People who clawed their way out can have a hard time looking back and seeing the improvements they didn't get to enjoy.

You don't actually have to move if you are rezoned to Wakefield. You could try it out and see how it is. If they redistrict in a way that changes the demographics the school changes. Look at W&L. Years ago, people would have freaked out if they were rezoned from Yorktown to W&L and now the Yorktown kids are choosing to go there.

It's not a good analogy, since APS treated W-L as its favorite child by giving W-L both AP and IB. So W-L gets transfers from Yorktown and Wakefield, but few students can transfer out.

Make Wakefield the only AP or IB school in the county, as discussed earlier in the thread, and the dynamics might change.

It is a very good analogy in that W-L used to be considered the ugly stepchild compared to Yorktown and now many (most?) consider them to be on fairly equal footing, and some (many?) even think W-L is a better choice.

No, your analogy is bad, for precisely the reasons stated. If W-L did not have both IB and AP, which attracts students from the AP-only schools and stems pupil placements to Yorktown, it would still be considered the ugly stepchild. Some still think it is, despite APS favoring it over the other two schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Meant to add, I personally don't think IB is enough of a draw to get Yorktown families to Wakefield. My guess is that many of the Yorktown to W-L IB transfers would stay at Yorktown if IB were moved to Wakefield.

I guess we won't find out unless APS tried that alternative. Now cue the violins about IB being part of the "fabric" at W-L.

[Anonymous]

APS has said they won't move IB because 1) W-L originally started the IB program and 2) it is the school that is IB accredited (not the school system, I guess, but that particular school?)